State-owned power utility Eskom reported on Friday that it had received a letter from Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy granting its emissions-breaching Kendal power station another two months to comply with the country’s minimum emission standards (MES).

Kendal has been battling to comply, since 2018, with the particulate-emissions component of the MES, which also sets limits for nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide.

The plant’s environmental performance worsened materially following strike action in mid-2018 when dust-handling protocols were breached and equipment damaged, following a decision to sustain production amid severe system constraints.

On average, the Kendal units have been emitting between 200 milligrams per standard cubic metre of air (mg/Nm3) and 300 mg/Nm3, with Unit 5 having, at points, exceeded 1 000 mg/Nm3. For ‘existing plants’ such as Kendal the particulate-matter emissions limit is 100 mg/Nm3, while it is 50 mg/Nm3 for new plants.

In December, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) confirmed that the Green Scorpions had issued Kendal with a compliance notice.

The notice instructed the station to shut down units 1 and 5 by January 9 and submit a maintenance plan for units 2, 3, 4 and 6 in order to ensure that Kendal was in compliance with its atmospheric emission licence.

The utility immediately requested an extension until the end of February, but was granted one until only January 31.

However, Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer announced on Friday that Creecy had, on January 30, granted Kendal a two-month extension to comply.

He reported that Unit 5, which was shut in September, was undergoing an extended maintenance shutdown to address several operational problems, including its lack of compliance with the MES.

“Tonight, we are taking down Unit 1 to deal specifically with the emissions side. That unit will come back in two weeks and we believe it will be below the 100 mg/Nm3 level.”

The reduction of emissions across its fleet had also been added to Eskom’s nine-point operational recovery plan, replacing a previous line item dealing with wet coal.

“We have some significant challenges in this area – we don’t adhere to our

atmospheric emission licence limits, but we also have plans in place to improve the performance,” Oberholzer said.

Particular attention is being given to ten of Eskom's 87 generation units, where emissions are high. Should the authorities move to enforce compliance at these units, more than 6 600 MW of capacity could be affected.

Controversially, Eskom has also made a submission to DEFF requesting either the suspension of, alternative limits for and/or postponement of MES compliance for several power stations from April 1.

This postponement submission was made in March last year, but DEFF subsequently requested additional modelling, which Eskom has not yet completed.

The utility expects to finalise the submission by the end of May in anticipation that DEFF will not move to enforce until the updated postponement application is submitted and adjudicated.